Saying he hated to do it, Superintendent Mike Miles announced at Thursday night’s school board meeting that he was recommending 12 Houston ISD schools be closed next fall and then power-pointed his way through where the kids at those schools could end up.
He cited low enrollments and declining facilities as the precipitating factors at these schools. And that it would be cost prohibitive to repair the schools. He pointed out declining enrollment has affected school districts throughout the country and in the Houston area leading to more school closures.
“I have resisted bringing something to the board for three years. The reason why is I feel schools should be community schools; that is the best thing for kids,” he said, adding later, “I can’t fight time and aging.”
The only way this will not happen is if the Board of Managers votes to save any of the schools at its February 26 meeting – an unlikely possibility given the board’s previous unanimous votes in favor of whatever Miles proposes.
The board meeting was well-attended but most of the families of and employees at those schools got the message through emails that started going out at 7 p.m. from HISD.
Families at these schools only will be given an extra week to make (or change) their school choice applications instead of the February 26 deadline. Teachers will still have their jobs if they are rated at Level 2 proficiency or above, but those at Level 1 Progressing will have to depend on their principals to retain their jobs, Miles said.
There will be explanatory sessions with families of the schools involved going over a week and a half to two weeks, Miles said. Clearly though this falls under the category of “telling” rather than gathering community impact but perhaps that happened earlier?
Congressman Christian Menefeee, newly elected to the 18th Congressional District, spoke directly after Miles’ presentation and in a polite manner expressed his displeasure with HISD’s communication about closing these schools.
“A few of the schools that were mentioned as being part of the shutdown program were in the 18th Congressional District. I know that Ms. [Paula] Mendoza said communication has been part of the main criticism about this process. I will tell you that I’m pretty engaged and my first time to hear about this was about an hour ago and I had to rush down here to try to figure out exactly what was going on.
“I heard a comment from Ms. [Michelle Cruz] Arnold that perhaps you aren’t voting on this tonight and I don’t know how the internal procedures work but it doesn’t seem like this has been very clearly communicated to the community, like they’re getting an opportunity to meaningfully participate in the process.
“You all know that since the takeover happened many people feel like it’s been a stripping of our democratic opportunity out here. And you’ve got another set of people who really feel like this is just closing down a bunch of schools so you can turn this into a charter system across the entire district. When you have something that’s done like in the dead heat of the night and it’s not properly noticed and people aren’t given the opportunity to engage, you just further that type of thinking.
“So my ask to you would be to slow down and allow people to come up here to have their voice heard to make this process feel like it’s more collaborative instead of it’s already a done deal and these kids and these families are just going to have to figure it out.”
The changes if approved by the Board of Managers:
Alcott Elementary will close. Students will be redirected to Mading Elementary.
Briscoe Elementary will close. Students will go to Carrillo Elementary.
Burrus Elementary will close and students will go to Kennedy Elementary.
Franklin Elementary will close and students will go to Gallegos Elementary.
Henderson Elementary will close and students will be moved to Bruce Elementary.
Port Houston Elementary will close and students will be redirected to Pleasantbill Elementary.
Ross Elementary will close and students can go to either Roosevelt Elementary or C. Martinez.
Cage Elementary will be co-located with Lantrip Elementary.
Fleming Middle school and MyReynolds Middle School are to be co-located with Mickey Leland College Preparatory Academy for Young Men.
Hobby Elementary will co-locate to Lawson Middle. Pre-K and kindergarten students at Hobby will move to Martin Luther King Jr. Early Childhood Center.
Middle College High School at HCC Gulfton will be absorbed into Liberty High School.
This article appears in Private: Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026.